Chapter 15
Setijin and Medicham paced through the swarms of trainers and made their way towards the information desk over at the far wall. They waited for the queues to disperse one by one, until attention was laid entirely upon them. The desk was part of a huge corridor, spanning the entire circumference of the stadium. The ceilings stood towering over the floor, the bricks of the walls clearly visible, and the dark green metal rafters of the structure weaved around each other high above.
"How may we help you?" a man dressed in a starched, navy blue pokémon league uniform, asked. Setijin leant forward, crossing his arms and resting them on the desk out of exhaustion.
"I'd like to know if there is anywhere here where we can train or battle other trainers," Setijin responded clearly, attempting to remain quiet while making himself heard through the banter and drone of the people around him.
"Well, there are facilities available, but I'm afraid there is quite a waiting list for them. There is a contest starting soon. Do you have a pass to enter?"
"Uh," Setijin murmured, thinking slowly before reaching for his pokénav, flipping it open and proceeding to look through the options available. He stopped and turned its face towards the staff member, displaying his trainer information.
"I see. It says here you're not a registered trainer as of yet."
"What? Aw, the info must have not gone through yet," Setijin groaned, slumping his head.
"But it also says you are permitted to all elite trainer privileges throughout Ever Grande City, so you are free do join if you so wish to," the staff member explained. Setijin's face shimmered with delight.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "So what kind of contest is it?"
"It's a very simple affair, nothing too spectacular. It's a simple knockout competition: 8 newly inducted trainers compete in a knockout competition. The winner is then awarded a badge, which withholds the same authority as a regular Gym badge, and can be automatically entered into a number of competitions around the world. For example more battle championships, Beauty contests etc." As the information continued, Setijin's anticipation grew more and more.
"Great! I'll join!" he shouted. The staff member smiled anxiously before typing in information into his console at his desk.
"Ok, you're in luck. There is a space left. One of the contestants dropped out yesterday. We weren't expecting a replacement, but now I guess challenger no. 6 will have to work for his place in the 2nd round. You are now challenger no.7, but if this is your first contest, I'll need to scan some information into your pokénav." Setijin agreed, as the man walked away from his chair, to the end of the desk where a small machine sat, the pokénav inserted in a slot on the side. The machine buzzed gently as it studied the device, Setijin turning suddenly at the thought of Medicham. As he expected, Medicham was gone.
"Uh oh. Uh, excuse me a second: be right back," Setijin rushed, before running back into the endless crowds in search of his pokémon.
Arc, Steven, Drake and a handful of other trainers still remained seated around the table, admiring the large, wall screened Television suspended from a slit in the ceiling. The picture was crisp, illuminating the room in place of the lights, which had been dimmed, the speakers swung around from the back delivering clear audio on whichever program they watched. Drake, still resting with his feet up on the center table continued to click the remote control in his command, changing the channel displayed on screen, the constant crackle of static in between the choices irritating the rest of the room.
"Please Drake, find something you like and fast. Anything is better than listening to static," Steven sighed. Arc chuckled lightly as Drake bolted up in retaliation, pointing the remote control at Steven.
"Fine, you don't like it, you try and find a channel to stick with on this thing." He flopped back into his chair, arms folded in frustration, turning his head stiffly towards the screen, sliding the control across to Steven. He picked it up, shuffled it in his hand to find a comfortable position before typing in a combination of numbers, revealing the sports channel, displaying the stadium at the center of the city, and the spectators steadily flocking towards their seats. The metal shutters forming the floor began to slide open loudly, producing a large, flat sanded dirt rectangle, with a simple set of white painted lines forming a pitch on the top. The shutters retracted completely, and the stage set itself at the same level as the shutters, the huge stadium screen displays firing up into life, only taking a few seconds to warm up before showing the same views as the TV coverage to the audience in the stadium.
"Oh yes, a pokémon tournament is on tonight. I'd forgotten about this one," Steven began. "I think it's supposed to be a novice tournament. Knockout affair if I'm not mistaken. He leant his right arm on the table, resting his head, turned towards the television on it. His scruffy green hair quickly flung itself down over his fingers. Arc also sat forwards.
"I wonder if Setijin's watching," Arc mumbled to himself.
Setijin's energy drained as he continued to push through the crowd, occasionally heaving himself up to see any traces of random destruction that his Medicham may have caused. Eventually, he came to a curve in the humungous corridor, whereupon he spotted an Ice cream stand, with two disgruntled vendors stood behind the counter, and Medicham on tiptoes repeating his name while waving a leaflet with an image of an ice cream on in front of them. Setijin slapped his forehead before hustling his way over to his pokémon and the quite plainly confused staff. He snuck up behind Medicham, and tugged him gently by the arm, getting down on his knees to be face to face with the pokémon.
"Medicham. That was not a particularly clever thing to do. No ice cream for you now!" Medicham pouted again. Setijin looked him in the eye and sighed. "All right fine. I'll get you an ice cream, but you have to promise to behave from now on. If you play up again, we won't be able to get into the contest on time." Medicham smiled sweetly as Setijin pulled himself back to his feet, and brought and ice cream, apologizing on his pokémons behalf. He handed Medicham the cone, snatching the crumpled leaflet from his hand, handing it back to the vendors. Setijin lead Medicham back down the corridor by the hand, Medicham gluttonously licking top of his sweet.
"Excuse me," Winona called, waving at a woman emerging from a door entitled 'staff only'. She wore a fresh white lab coat, and had long black hair, tightly tied back. She held a clipboard in her left hand, and pocketed the small ballpoint pen in her right. She smiled as Winona continued. "Could you please tell us about the rock in that exhibit over there?" she asked, pointing towards the encased rock.
"Certainly! What would you like to know?"
"Well, the main question is; are there supposed to be two rocks there?" The woman slowly nodded.
"Yes. Originally, there were two chunks of rock, but not too long ago, one was stolen. Our CCTV cameras didn't reveal much, but it seemed to be someone dressed all in black. We have no idea what they wanted with it, but at least they still only have one. It was a shock though."
"Not to mention a cliché," Lucia mumbled to herself. Winona sharply turned her head towards in a scolding fashion, before continuing with the inquiry.
"So the rocks themselves. Do they really contain pokémon DNA?"
"Yes. It seems that it is entirely unlike any we have found and examined before. The closest matches we have found is that of a unique pokémon: Mew, the ancient pokémon of legend. Other than this very loose match, next to nothing is known about this. We have treated it as a number of items we find here on earth: Fossils, moon stones and so on."
"Fascinating," Winona gawped. "Still, at least we are safe in the knowledge that whoever took it will probably have as much luck with it was we did," the woman laughed. Winona copied, her laughs significantly frailer than usual. Lucia simply rolled her eyes.
The member of staff handed Setijin back his pokénav and a small identity tag.
"This is simply a means of quickly identifying your access rights around the stadium during the tournament. The private changing and training rooms are at the end of this path, but be quick! The tournament starts in no more than half an hour! You were incredibly lucky to have gained a place." Setijin nodded and started quickly off down the pathway, waving back at the staff member.
"Thank you!" he called, dragging Medicham by the arm, whom was still knowing on his ice cream cone.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Ever Grande Stadium!" the exaggerated and over emphatic commentator announced via stadium mega phone systems. "Tonight, we are here to witness the battles of a new line of pokémon trainers! In an 8 man, 1 on 1, one pokémon per battle affair, this stadium shall pit each of this new pick against each other, to determine who will triumph in the world of pokémon, and who will fall!" The crowd cheered and applauded, the very percussion causing the entire stadium and its foundations to shudder. Even small events such as this still managed to entice thousands of avid spectators with little effort. Over half and hour had past since Setijin had finished signing in; him now waiting in the competitors tunnel next to the 7 other trainers he was soon to compete against.
The trainers all seemed very distinct. Competitor number 1 was a young, 10 year old boy named Lysander, dressed in a small white shirt, blue denim shorts, and wore a sea blue baseball cap, the flap angled up at the front. Number 2 was a young girl called Emerald. She stood anxiously in a smart pale yellow button up shirt and tartan checkered shorts. Behind here waited Helena: trainer 3, standing but a few centimeters short of Setijin, her blonde hair flowing freely down her back over her shoulders. She was dressed in a shiny red tracksuit top and shorts; both with white stripes sewed on down the side. Number 4 was Errol, a tall man, with a thick hikers hat tilted to one side on his head, dressed in mountaineering gear.
Trainer number 5 was Jake, a novice tri-athlete, donning typical tri- athlete gear: nylon vest, shorts, white trainers and a cycling helmet strapped around the back of his neck. His head was shaved and the force of the floodlights shimmered violently off of his sunglasses. Trainer 6 was George, in a white and baggy black jeans, a crude bamboo bug net strapped to his back. Setijin stood as trainer 7, while trainer 8 waited behind him, Polo, a woman in a long velvety red dress, her hair blonde and curly, her pale complexion protected by her elaborate parasol. The sight of the thousands of crowd members shook Setijin's nerves. His heart throbbed as the announcer proceeded to introduce the competitors.
"Now to meet the contestants. In slot number 1, we have Lysander..." the crowd cheered with each name announced. The line in the tunnel grew shorter and shorter until the terrified Setijin stood at the front.
"How did I get into this why did I do this I'm going to mess up big time all those people are watching me how did I get into this?" he stuttered quietly to himself. His hands trembled at his side, freezing as Setijin's name was called. He stood perfectly still, only moving as Polo nudged him from behind.
"Go on hun'. You'll be fine," she reassured sweetly. Setijin took a deep breath and heaved himself out onto the stadium floor. The crowd cheered once again, their cries easing a smile onto his relieved face.
"Maybe this wont be so bad after all."
Arc jolted forward at the sight of Setijin on television.
"He's already got himself into a tournament eh?" Steven admired. "What do you think his chances are Arc?"
"I don't know. He's good, but I don't know if his pokémon are up to it," he replied. "Like he keeps saying himself, he's only had them for 4 days at the most."
"This should be veeeery interesting," Drake smiled, his grizzly, grainy voice almost whining above all others. Steven turned to Arc.
"This could prove to us how good he really is. If we need to know whether he's up for the challenge, this is our chance to assess," Steven explained. "I know you have your doubts." Arc agreed.
"This will be interesting," he relayed cheerily.
Setijin and Medicham paced through the swarms of trainers and made their way towards the information desk over at the far wall. They waited for the queues to disperse one by one, until attention was laid entirely upon them. The desk was part of a huge corridor, spanning the entire circumference of the stadium. The ceilings stood towering over the floor, the bricks of the walls clearly visible, and the dark green metal rafters of the structure weaved around each other high above.
"How may we help you?" a man dressed in a starched, navy blue pokémon league uniform, asked. Setijin leant forward, crossing his arms and resting them on the desk out of exhaustion.
"I'd like to know if there is anywhere here where we can train or battle other trainers," Setijin responded clearly, attempting to remain quiet while making himself heard through the banter and drone of the people around him.
"Well, there are facilities available, but I'm afraid there is quite a waiting list for them. There is a contest starting soon. Do you have a pass to enter?"
"Uh," Setijin murmured, thinking slowly before reaching for his pokénav, flipping it open and proceeding to look through the options available. He stopped and turned its face towards the staff member, displaying his trainer information.
"I see. It says here you're not a registered trainer as of yet."
"What? Aw, the info must have not gone through yet," Setijin groaned, slumping his head.
"But it also says you are permitted to all elite trainer privileges throughout Ever Grande City, so you are free do join if you so wish to," the staff member explained. Setijin's face shimmered with delight.
"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "So what kind of contest is it?"
"It's a very simple affair, nothing too spectacular. It's a simple knockout competition: 8 newly inducted trainers compete in a knockout competition. The winner is then awarded a badge, which withholds the same authority as a regular Gym badge, and can be automatically entered into a number of competitions around the world. For example more battle championships, Beauty contests etc." As the information continued, Setijin's anticipation grew more and more.
"Great! I'll join!" he shouted. The staff member smiled anxiously before typing in information into his console at his desk.
"Ok, you're in luck. There is a space left. One of the contestants dropped out yesterday. We weren't expecting a replacement, but now I guess challenger no. 6 will have to work for his place in the 2nd round. You are now challenger no.7, but if this is your first contest, I'll need to scan some information into your pokénav." Setijin agreed, as the man walked away from his chair, to the end of the desk where a small machine sat, the pokénav inserted in a slot on the side. The machine buzzed gently as it studied the device, Setijin turning suddenly at the thought of Medicham. As he expected, Medicham was gone.
"Uh oh. Uh, excuse me a second: be right back," Setijin rushed, before running back into the endless crowds in search of his pokémon.
Arc, Steven, Drake and a handful of other trainers still remained seated around the table, admiring the large, wall screened Television suspended from a slit in the ceiling. The picture was crisp, illuminating the room in place of the lights, which had been dimmed, the speakers swung around from the back delivering clear audio on whichever program they watched. Drake, still resting with his feet up on the center table continued to click the remote control in his command, changing the channel displayed on screen, the constant crackle of static in between the choices irritating the rest of the room.
"Please Drake, find something you like and fast. Anything is better than listening to static," Steven sighed. Arc chuckled lightly as Drake bolted up in retaliation, pointing the remote control at Steven.
"Fine, you don't like it, you try and find a channel to stick with on this thing." He flopped back into his chair, arms folded in frustration, turning his head stiffly towards the screen, sliding the control across to Steven. He picked it up, shuffled it in his hand to find a comfortable position before typing in a combination of numbers, revealing the sports channel, displaying the stadium at the center of the city, and the spectators steadily flocking towards their seats. The metal shutters forming the floor began to slide open loudly, producing a large, flat sanded dirt rectangle, with a simple set of white painted lines forming a pitch on the top. The shutters retracted completely, and the stage set itself at the same level as the shutters, the huge stadium screen displays firing up into life, only taking a few seconds to warm up before showing the same views as the TV coverage to the audience in the stadium.
"Oh yes, a pokémon tournament is on tonight. I'd forgotten about this one," Steven began. "I think it's supposed to be a novice tournament. Knockout affair if I'm not mistaken. He leant his right arm on the table, resting his head, turned towards the television on it. His scruffy green hair quickly flung itself down over his fingers. Arc also sat forwards.
"I wonder if Setijin's watching," Arc mumbled to himself.
Setijin's energy drained as he continued to push through the crowd, occasionally heaving himself up to see any traces of random destruction that his Medicham may have caused. Eventually, he came to a curve in the humungous corridor, whereupon he spotted an Ice cream stand, with two disgruntled vendors stood behind the counter, and Medicham on tiptoes repeating his name while waving a leaflet with an image of an ice cream on in front of them. Setijin slapped his forehead before hustling his way over to his pokémon and the quite plainly confused staff. He snuck up behind Medicham, and tugged him gently by the arm, getting down on his knees to be face to face with the pokémon.
"Medicham. That was not a particularly clever thing to do. No ice cream for you now!" Medicham pouted again. Setijin looked him in the eye and sighed. "All right fine. I'll get you an ice cream, but you have to promise to behave from now on. If you play up again, we won't be able to get into the contest on time." Medicham smiled sweetly as Setijin pulled himself back to his feet, and brought and ice cream, apologizing on his pokémons behalf. He handed Medicham the cone, snatching the crumpled leaflet from his hand, handing it back to the vendors. Setijin lead Medicham back down the corridor by the hand, Medicham gluttonously licking top of his sweet.
"Excuse me," Winona called, waving at a woman emerging from a door entitled 'staff only'. She wore a fresh white lab coat, and had long black hair, tightly tied back. She held a clipboard in her left hand, and pocketed the small ballpoint pen in her right. She smiled as Winona continued. "Could you please tell us about the rock in that exhibit over there?" she asked, pointing towards the encased rock.
"Certainly! What would you like to know?"
"Well, the main question is; are there supposed to be two rocks there?" The woman slowly nodded.
"Yes. Originally, there were two chunks of rock, but not too long ago, one was stolen. Our CCTV cameras didn't reveal much, but it seemed to be someone dressed all in black. We have no idea what they wanted with it, but at least they still only have one. It was a shock though."
"Not to mention a cliché," Lucia mumbled to herself. Winona sharply turned her head towards in a scolding fashion, before continuing with the inquiry.
"So the rocks themselves. Do they really contain pokémon DNA?"
"Yes. It seems that it is entirely unlike any we have found and examined before. The closest matches we have found is that of a unique pokémon: Mew, the ancient pokémon of legend. Other than this very loose match, next to nothing is known about this. We have treated it as a number of items we find here on earth: Fossils, moon stones and so on."
"Fascinating," Winona gawped. "Still, at least we are safe in the knowledge that whoever took it will probably have as much luck with it was we did," the woman laughed. Winona copied, her laughs significantly frailer than usual. Lucia simply rolled her eyes.
The member of staff handed Setijin back his pokénav and a small identity tag.
"This is simply a means of quickly identifying your access rights around the stadium during the tournament. The private changing and training rooms are at the end of this path, but be quick! The tournament starts in no more than half an hour! You were incredibly lucky to have gained a place." Setijin nodded and started quickly off down the pathway, waving back at the staff member.
"Thank you!" he called, dragging Medicham by the arm, whom was still knowing on his ice cream cone.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Ever Grande Stadium!" the exaggerated and over emphatic commentator announced via stadium mega phone systems. "Tonight, we are here to witness the battles of a new line of pokémon trainers! In an 8 man, 1 on 1, one pokémon per battle affair, this stadium shall pit each of this new pick against each other, to determine who will triumph in the world of pokémon, and who will fall!" The crowd cheered and applauded, the very percussion causing the entire stadium and its foundations to shudder. Even small events such as this still managed to entice thousands of avid spectators with little effort. Over half and hour had past since Setijin had finished signing in; him now waiting in the competitors tunnel next to the 7 other trainers he was soon to compete against.
The trainers all seemed very distinct. Competitor number 1 was a young, 10 year old boy named Lysander, dressed in a small white shirt, blue denim shorts, and wore a sea blue baseball cap, the flap angled up at the front. Number 2 was a young girl called Emerald. She stood anxiously in a smart pale yellow button up shirt and tartan checkered shorts. Behind here waited Helena: trainer 3, standing but a few centimeters short of Setijin, her blonde hair flowing freely down her back over her shoulders. She was dressed in a shiny red tracksuit top and shorts; both with white stripes sewed on down the side. Number 4 was Errol, a tall man, with a thick hikers hat tilted to one side on his head, dressed in mountaineering gear.
Trainer number 5 was Jake, a novice tri-athlete, donning typical tri- athlete gear: nylon vest, shorts, white trainers and a cycling helmet strapped around the back of his neck. His head was shaved and the force of the floodlights shimmered violently off of his sunglasses. Trainer 6 was George, in a white and baggy black jeans, a crude bamboo bug net strapped to his back. Setijin stood as trainer 7, while trainer 8 waited behind him, Polo, a woman in a long velvety red dress, her hair blonde and curly, her pale complexion protected by her elaborate parasol. The sight of the thousands of crowd members shook Setijin's nerves. His heart throbbed as the announcer proceeded to introduce the competitors.
"Now to meet the contestants. In slot number 1, we have Lysander..." the crowd cheered with each name announced. The line in the tunnel grew shorter and shorter until the terrified Setijin stood at the front.
"How did I get into this why did I do this I'm going to mess up big time all those people are watching me how did I get into this?" he stuttered quietly to himself. His hands trembled at his side, freezing as Setijin's name was called. He stood perfectly still, only moving as Polo nudged him from behind.
"Go on hun'. You'll be fine," she reassured sweetly. Setijin took a deep breath and heaved himself out onto the stadium floor. The crowd cheered once again, their cries easing a smile onto his relieved face.
"Maybe this wont be so bad after all."
Arc jolted forward at the sight of Setijin on television.
"He's already got himself into a tournament eh?" Steven admired. "What do you think his chances are Arc?"
"I don't know. He's good, but I don't know if his pokémon are up to it," he replied. "Like he keeps saying himself, he's only had them for 4 days at the most."
"This should be veeeery interesting," Drake smiled, his grizzly, grainy voice almost whining above all others. Steven turned to Arc.
"This could prove to us how good he really is. If we need to know whether he's up for the challenge, this is our chance to assess," Steven explained. "I know you have your doubts." Arc agreed.
"This will be interesting," he relayed cheerily.